Probability says that with an infinite number of monkeys and typewriters given an infinite amount of time, at some stage the monkeys will produce the entire works of Shakespeare. According to this BBC News article, a programmer in the US has tried to do just that, using AWS (Amazon Web Services). He’s created virtual monkeys that run on AWS instances, ... Read More »

During one of the Intel presentations at the Developer Forum last week the presenter made the statement that Intel processors are deployed in 70%-80% of storage arrays shipped today. Initially this may seem like a surprise but on closer inspection, it’s pretty obvious to see that it’s probably an accurate statement. EMC converted to Xeon technology with VMAX and already ... Read More »

While I was at the Intel Developer Forum last week I recorded a podcast with Allyson Klein, Director of technology Leadership marketing for the Data Center Group at Intel. You can find this and other podcasts here: http://www.intel.com/design/chipchat.htm Read More »

With yet another HDS/VAAI post coming out from Scott Lowe (here), the irrelevant debate continues as to who is in and who is out of VMware’s inner circle of trusted storage vendors. Previously my friend Stephen Foskett discussed HDS’s position regarding VMware integration in this post, which followed on from an original post by Chris Mellor (who I hope would ... Read More »

A few months ago I received a test ioSafe SoloPro external disk drive. This heavyweight unit is designed to withstand fire and water and so could be used as a home backup device for the worst kind of catastrophe. For a few months I ran the device as a Time Machine backup for my main iMac. It performs well enough ... Read More »

I don’t talk about company acquisitions too often but I can’t let the purchase of BlueArc by HDS pass me by without adding my opinion. First of all, for those of you who don’t know, BlueArc sells NAS hardware which has been resold by HDS for some years under the HNAS brand. The hardware comes stand-alone or can act as ... Read More »